


Fight for a Soul

by digimaniac33



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, V8C8 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:47:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/digimaniac33/pseuds/digimaniac33
Summary: Ruby rushes to save Penny from Watts's machinations
Relationships: Penny Polendina/Ruby Rose
Kudos: 18





	Fight for a Soul

This couldn’t be happening.

After everything they’d done - launching Amity, broadcasting their message to the world, evacuating the people of Mantle - Ruby thought the crises were over, that they could finally focus on stopping the bad guys and ending this fight once and for all.

But Penny… when she finally woke up from the beating that Grimm ( _who had been a person, a person made into a Grimm, she was going to have nightmares about that the rest of her life_ ) had given her, she wasn’t - she wasn’t Penny. Her eyes were bright red, and she moved like someone was pulling her along with strings. She’d suddenly taken off, saying something about the vault.

Luckily the rest of those who’d rested at the mansion had already been on their way to the Academy - they’d seen telltale signs of Cinder’s presence there even from the Schnee Mansion. It was all Ruby could do to stop herself from wresting the controls out of the Schnee drone’s grip to go after Penny directly. Once they’d landed, the others had reassured her they could handle whatever forces Salem or Ironwood had waiting for them. “We’ve got this,” Blake had said, “so you go get her.”

So now Ruby was running as fast as she could, wishing she had enough aura to use her semblance all the way to the vault. She knew she had to conserve that power, though - she barely had any aura left at all. She wasn’t even entirely sure where she was going - Oscar had described his trip there once, but every hall in this place looked identical to the last. She kept going though. She couldn’t stop.

Finally she found the elevator shaft Oscar had described. When the doors wouldn’t open, she smashed them open with Crescent Rose. The platform wasn’t there - someone had used it to get to the bottom already. Without a second thought, she leaped into the shaft.

It was different falling through this cramped mechanical hole rather than the open sky. Her strategy would have to be different as well. When one side of the shaft opened up, letting her see the cavernous space that housed the vault, she pierced a wall with Crescent Rose’s blade, using that friction to slow herself from deadly speed to merely reckless. At the bottom, she pulled her weapon free and jumped out, rolling to her feet and running towards the door in the distance.

She could see a small figure striding toward that door. “Penny!” Ruby shouted. “Penny, please! Don’t open that vault!”

Penny didn’t even turn around. She just kept walking towards the door. “I must open the vault, and then I must self-terminate.” Her voice was painfully flat, nothing like Penny’s real voice at all.

Ruby was too far away. She saw Penny reach the door, saw her place a hand on its golden surface. She kept running, though, ignoring the door opening onto some otherworldly landscape. As she approached, she saw Penny turn back towards her, charging her laser between her hands. Her eyes were red and unfocused. “NO!” Ruby screamed, forcing her semblance to its limits to reach Penny. Her aura ran out just as she pulled Penny into her arms. “Please, Penny… I can’t lose you. Seeing you again… it was a miracle, a true miracle, and I don’t think I’m getting any more of those.”

Penny’s hands stayed stiff behind Ruby’s back, but she wasn’t gathering energy into them. “Ruby…” And _that_ was Penny’s voice - scared, choked with tears, and Ruby never wanted to hear her like that again but it was magnitudes better than the way she’d sounded before. “Ruby, I can’t… I can’t stop. I’ve been trying, I’ve been fighting it so hard, but I couldn’t stay away. I can’t…” She leaned her head against Ruby’s, her tears soaking into Ruby’s hair. “Please, just… go away Ruby. I can’t stop, and… it would break my heart if you stayed.”

“I’m not leaving.” Ruby gripped onto Penny with all her strength. “No matter what, I”m staying right here with you. So…” Ruby choked down the fear and sadness in her throat. “So if you go, I’m going with you.” _Sorry, Dad,_ she thought to herself. _I didn’t mean for things to go like this, but I have to do this._

“No!” Now Penny was pushing at Ruby’s shoulders, and she was too strong for Ruby to keep her grip, but she grabbed at Penny’s forearms before she could be completely pushed away. Ruby looked at Penny’s eyes. They were flickering so rapidly between green and red, it almost made Ruby nauseous. She wouldn’t look away though. “I’m not leaving, Penny. You can fight this. You have a soul, I know it. And you know it too. So fight!”

Penny gripped Ruby’s arms back, stronger than Ruby could handle, but she ignored the pain. Penny stared into Ruby’s eyes, her own eyes flickering back and forth until she closed them tightly for a moment. When she opened them, they were pure green, flames flying from the corners. Ruby started to smile, but stopped when she saw how focused Penny still was. “It’s still there, Ruby. I can feel it. I just have a little time to be me.” She swallowed hard. “But I know how to get rid of it.” From her back, Floating Array deployed, its missing member still painfully, obviously absent. Penny looked into Ruby’s eyes. “I need your help, though.”

“Of course,” Ruby answered instantly. “Anything you want.”

Penny took a deep breath. “Okay. The component that all my swords are connected to… I need you to take it out.”

Ruby swallowed hard herself. Taking a piece of Penny away from her was a scary thought, especially if she pulled the wrong thing, but, well, she’d promised. Anything for Penny. She walked around to Penny’s back, nothing how Penny gathered all her swords to one side so she wouldn’t get tangled. She smiled at that before getting to work.

She followed the strings from Floating Array into Penny, where they all converged into a single block. When she touched it, a shudder ran through Penny. “Sorry!” Ruby exclaimed. “Did that hurt, did I do something wrong -“

“It’s not you,” Penny replied, her voice strained. “Just - hurry. Please.”

“Right, of course, you got it.” Ruby dived back in, her fingers testing the edges of the block until she felt how it clicked into place. Luckily she wouldn’t need any tools to take it out - it was probably designed to be removable for weapons maintenance. Ruby took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. Then, she pulled the block out.

Once it was removed, Penny turned around immediately, taking the component from Ruby’s hands. Flames appeared from her eyes again as she focused on her hand, until smoke started drifting up. The strong smell of melting plastic suddenly hit Ruby, causing her to gag. When she looked again, the block was melted into unrecognizable goop, and Floating Array had fallen slack to the ground. Penny was looking at her now without the Maiden flames in her eyes. Her beautiful pure green eyes.

“Is that it…?” Ruby asked tentatively.

Penny nodded, tears in her eyes. “They were using my connection to Floating Array to get into my system, so… I had to destroy that connection.”

“Oh Penny.” Ruby pulled her into a hug. A Huntress’s weapon was… it was like an extension of your _soul_. For someone to abuse that, and for Penny to forcibly cut herself away like that… Ruby couldn’t imagine how that felt.

Penny cried into Ruby’s head, gripping her hard, though not hard enough to hurt. “But… I’m me. That other voice, it’s not there anymore.” Her crying turned to laughter. “Ruby, I’m free!”

Ruby laughed, too. “You are! You can do whatever you want, Penny. You are _free_.”

Penny pulled back, meeting Ruby’s eyes. Her expression - happy, relieved, and something else Ruby couldn’t identify - made Ruby blush a little. Penny was blushing too. “Ruby, may I…” She trailed off.

“What?” Ruby whispered. The atmosphere had changed. They seemed frozen in time together, and Ruby was afraid to disrupt that.

Instead of answering out loud, Penny moved her face until it was just centimeters in front of Ruby’s. Her eyes asked the question she couldn’t vocalize.

In response, Ruby bridged the gap, pressing her lips to Penny’s. And for a moment, nothing else existed in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> do i think this is how things are gonna go down? no, not exactly
> 
> do i think fixing the hack is gonna be as simple as that? probably not, no
> 
> am i hoping we get some kind of callback to ruby's heartfelt speech from vol 2? yes, absolutely


End file.
